A New Jersey High School Student Created An Anti-Gun-Control Project, Got Suspended And Ordered To Undergo Psych Exam

A New Jersey high school student created an anti-gun-control video, but instead of getting a good grade, he got suspended and ordered to undergo a psychological evaluation, News 12 is reporting.

Frank Harvey says he was assigned the anti-gun-control project last year, as part of a college readiness course at Manville High School. Harvey completed the project over the summer. Unfortunately, he accidentally left his project on a thumb drive that he left in a computer in the school library. On Monday, someone else found it and turned it into school officials. The school contacted the police.

Frank Harvey accidentally left his anti-gun-control project on a thumb drive on a school computer. [Image by Brian A Jackson/Shutterstock]

Frank was called in to explain himself. A police investigation cleared the high school student of any wrongdoing, but school officials weren’t so forgiving. He was suspended indefinitely and won’t be allowed to return until he undergoes a five-hour psychological evaluation.

So what was on Frank’s project that was so terrifying to school officials? Nothing much, according to Frank. He presented stories of people who had used guns to fend off home invaders. He also showed a few anti-gun-control political cartoons. He argues that gun-free zones don’t work.

New Jersey high school student Frank Harvey says gun-free zones don’t work [Image by enterlinedesign/Shutterstock]

That’s it.

At this point, it bears noting that, as of this writing, the contents of Harvey’s anti-gun-control project haven’t been released to the media, so all we have is Frank’s word for it as to what it contains.

Frank says that he’s never been in trouble at school before, so he’s confused at to why school officials are coming down so hard on him.

“I’ve never been a violent person. I’ve never had detention in my life.”

He also claims that his teacher assigned the project; specifically, he says he was assigned to argue against gun control.

“It was assigned by the teacher, and I got the topic, which was anti-gun control, approved by the teacher.”

That’s a claim his teacher denies, by the way. And it’s the reason he’s in so much trouble, says Frank’s mother, Mary Vervan.

“I’m not taking him for a psychological evaluation because this teacher is lying and won’t own up to what she did.”

In fact, so outraged by this turn of events are Frank and his mother that he won’t be returning to Manville High School. Instead, he says, he has decided to get his GED, according to the Newark Star-Ledger.

In the age of Zero Tolerance, schools are extremely touchy when it comes to the subject of weapons at school, and school officials have been known to sometimes overreact. In perhaps one of the most egregious cases of schools overreacting to guns, as reported by Huffington Post, a Maryland dad says his son was suspended from school simply for talking about guns.

Bruce Henkelman says school officials heard his son talking to friends about the Newtown school shooting.

“He said, ‘I wish I had a gun to protect everyone.’ He wanted to defeat the bad guys. That’s the context of what he said.”

As with almost all cases involving the discipline of a student in a public school, the school cannot legally give their side of the story due to privacy laws. The case of New Jersey teen Frank Harvey is no exception; News 12 reached out to Manville High School for comment, and the school declined.

“The school district is not at liberty to make comment on any issue pertaining to confidential student information.”

Do you think Manville High School overreacted by suspending a student for creating an anti-gun-control project?